阅读量:
工作中,我们会经常遇到不顺心的事情,总会有那么些许的事情让我们心情不爽。尤其是对于女同事们来说,工作量太大我们会抱怨;无偿加班我们会抱怨;老板的坏脾气我们也会抱怨;甚至是公司的电脑网速都能成为我们抱怨的理由。
可是,据科学家们调查发现,抱怨是可以蔓延的,这种坏心情也是容易被传染的。试想在办公室有这么一群经常抱怨的同事,是不是自己也会不自觉地加入“怨妇“的队伍当中去呢?下面我们就看看这个调查到底是怎么分析的吧。
Do you sit next to a whingeing workmate who constantly moans about fellow colleagues, workload or politics?
Do you listen patiently while she worries about bosses, boyfriends or boring bank issues?
If you do, you could be suffering more than just a bent ear, as a new study reveals we can actually 'catch' other people's stress.
Professor Elaine Hatfield, a psychologist from the University of Hawaii, discovered that stress can be as contagious as a cold, and that 'passive' or second-hand stress and anxiety can quickly spread around the workplace.
'People seem to be capable of mimicking others' facial, vocal, and postural expressions with stunning rapidity,' Hatfield said.
'As a consequence, they are able to feel themselves into those other emotional lives to a surprising extent.'
Prof. Hatfield's study found that we are effectively sponges, soaking up so-called emotional contagions emitted by those around us.
As we absorb other people's stress, we can begin to feel stressed too - and to focus on issues that might be troubling us.
In part, we take on our friend or colleague's stress in an attempt to identify with them, but also because the constant stream of discontent poured into our ears acts as a depressant, turning our minds to negative thoughts.
And Professor Hatfield found that not only do we take on other people's negative thought patterns, we can also start to subconsciously take on their stressed out body language, causing us to hunch our shoulders and furrow our brows when we talk to them.
'In conversation, people automatically and continuously mimic and synchronise their movements with the facial expressions, voices, postures, movements, and instrumental behaviors of others,' Professor Hatfield says.
'Women are more at risk because they tend to be more in tune to other people's feelings.'